You Don’t have to be Good at Something to Enjoy It

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​A friend sent me this quote by American writer Kurt Vonnegut that contains a very important life lesson: “When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of ‘getting to know you’ questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes. And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, ‘Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.’ And he said something then that I will never forget, and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: ‘I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.’ And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could ‘Win” at them.’”

One thought on “You Don’t have to be Good at Something to Enjoy It

  1. Hi Ross,
    I want to thank-you so much for this reminder. I read this aloud to William, who is a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut’s writing, and this message really resonated with us both. What an opportunity to step back and reflect on what brings us immense joy and keep doing the things we love, simply because we love them! We also enjoyed the variety of people you chose to quote. (Jennifer Love Hewitt! Dr. Seuss! Variety really is the spice of life…) On that note, William continues to exercise his brain with his rigorous chess games, and I am catching up on some correspondence with some positive and important people in my life (this includes you!).
    I hope you all have a wonderful time at Lake Tahoe. I heard recently there was some seismic activity that occurred not far from the Tahoe area, and I hope you guys are okay!
    Stay safe, and enjoy a wonderful summer vacation.
    Love, Autumn

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